Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Hockey-Broadcasting

The Chicago Blackhawks and Comcast SportsNet have announced that Comcast SportsNet will televise their first home game of the season on Sunday, November 11 when the Blackhawks play host to the archrival Detroit Red Wings at 6:00 p.m.

The November 11 game will be the first in a series of home games to be broadcast live and in high-definition on Comcast SportsNet. The full schedule will be released next week with additional home games airing throughout the remainder of the 2007-2008 season.

“It’s time to share the energy and excitement of the Blackhawks with all of our fans,” said Blackhawks Chairman W. Rockwell “Rocky” Wirtz. “We are entering a new era and putting home games back on TV is the first step to supporting our great players and fans.”

*Previously mentioned last week, but only confirmed by the ‘Hawks today

With the successful U.S. launch this month of NHL Network, the first national network dedicated entirely to hockey, the network today announced the live regular-season game telecast package in the U.S. through November. In all, NHL Network in the U.S. will telecast 50 live regular-season games this season, in addition to classic games, documentaries, instructional shows, highlights and more. To ensure fans receive the best match-ups, NHL Network’s game telecast schedule will be released on a monthly basis. Based on the previously-announced carriage arrangements with Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, DIRECTV, DISH Network and Time Warner Cable, NHL Network is accessible to 75 million homes.

If you’re a hockey fan in the good ol’ USA, life can be pretty frustrating. (You already knew that, didn’t you?)

The latest example of that frustration came Tuesday night. I was eager to see Ryan Smyth’s return to Edmonton. In particular, I wanted to see the crowd reaction when he skated onto the ice as a member of the visiting Avalanche and I wanted to see the Oilers’ video tribute to their former star.

Najak says Hockey Night, which stayed with the same programming for more than 10 years, needed a change.

“And the thing is, change doesn’t come without some pain,” he said. “If we had come back with [the previous Hot Stove panel of sportswriters], we wouldn’t have had the energy. I’m not averse to taking risk, and the only way to get some gain is to be unafraid.”...

The objective, Najak said, is to separate the show from the standard hockey telecast — to be different yet entertaining.

“This show has to be representative of the people who watch it,” he said. “And a lot of Canadians don’t like being yelled at. I don’t want it to be like the regular sports show. I want to be big time on Saturday nights. That’s what we’re going for and that’s what we’re going to get to.”

read on... I asked Eric Duhatschek earlier today about his views of HNIC, especially the Hot Stove segment. You can find the audio interview here...